The weeks are counting down until fall camp begins for the USC football team the first week of August. During each of the in-between weeks, we've been offering up an early first look at the 12 scheduled opponents for the 2011 season, in chronological order. We began with Minnesota and Utah, continued the next three weeks with Syracuse, Arizona State, and Arizona, and added Cal and Notre Dame recently. We now present Stanford, who the Trojans will face at home on Saturday, Oct. 29:

History: USC and Stanford have matched up 88 times in their histories, dating to 1905.

On only five occasions have the Cardinal been ranked higher than USC entering the matchup. Last year was one of those times, and this year figures to be another, as the Cardinal enter the 2011 season as a likely preseason top-10 pick.

USC leads the all-time series between the schools by a margin of 58-27-3, and the Trojans have had win streaks as long as 12 games against Stanford. But, over the last dozen years, the Cardinal have actually been USC's toughest in-conference opponent.

Since 1999, the teams have split 12 games, and it has been streaky. Stanford won in 1999, 2000 and 2001; USC won five straight from 2002 to 2006 until Stanford pulled off the big upset in 2007. Then the Trojans won once more in 2008 before the Cardinal took the next two, including USC's worst home loss in three decades in 2009.

Half of those last 12 games have been tightly contested, with margins of victory of five points or fewer.

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Mark Saxon

Mark Saxon is a staff writer for ESPNLosAngeles.com. He spent six years at the Orange County Register, and began his career at the Oakland Tribune, where he started an 11-year journey covering Major League Baseball. He has also covered colleges, including USC football and UCLA basketball.

Arash Markazi

Arash Markazi joined ESPNLosAngeles.com as a columnist and writer after five years with Sports Illustrated. Markazi has also written for Slam, King, Vibe and Playboy and is on the board of directors for the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation.